Pizza Bath: Skips the Douches

Pizza Bath, In Crust We Trust

10 February 2018 By Christine Leonard 

To each a calzone.

As zestful as a slice of well-seasoned za, the saucy foursome known as Pizza Bath enjoy the hell out of a good kitchen party. Punching upwards with a frantic and fraught punk rock sound, vocalist/guitarist Sean Hamilton, guitarist/vocalist Eric Andrews Svilpis, bassist/vocalist Gavin Howard and drummer Fergie McLean recall the thirsty days of yore when garage jams and Hot Pockets ruled the suburban wasteland.  

“We all play in a lot of bands,” Hamilton acknowledges. “Pizza Bath emerged as a project out of Rockin’ 4 Dollar$ at Broken City. I had all these punk songs I’d been writing while on tour drumming for Miesha and the Spanks and I just wanted them to have a purpose. Eric helped me put together a band that was only supposed to learn like four songs, but it just sounded too good to not pursue and put some energy into.” 

Pouring their collective steam into a fully-loaded EP seemed like the right direction to head in, and they got down to pounding out some speedy but generously proportioned tunes.

“The goals and values of Pizza Bath stem from the lyrical content,” he elaborates.

“We wanted to be fun and goofy, but then have a much darker message in our portrayal of what life means and what our role in the world is. What we try and promote through our lyrics and real-life actions is just a willingness to become better; in everything we are and through all of our failures. We want to grow and learn to be the best versions of ourselves with each new experience.” 

Salvation is where you find it. And in the case of the not-so-flippant-after-all Pizza Bath, a compelling melody, unguarded confession or even a decisive downbeat can all illuminate the path to a more fulsome experience. Proof that the group’s philosophy isn’t hopelessly mired in glutinous psychoanalysis and sadness, Pizza Bath always makes short work out of providing audiences with a cheesy good time. 

“Don’t get me wrong, Pizza Bath is a lot of fun and games. That’s important, as well,” Hamilton affirms. “If you aren’t actively trying to enjoy life, then I’d like to meet up, give you a high five, and try to explain that if this blip of an existence isn’t the coolest thing in the universe, I don’t know what is. But, we do acknowledge the darkness. Because if you don’t see the desperation in life, you might be missing out on living a little bit of it.” 

Pizza Bath will celebrate their EP release show on Saturday, Feb. 17th at Nite Owl (Calgary) with Abductees, Old Wives and All Hands on Jane. Abductees will also be releasing a new recording that night!

The Bled : Tight Lips and Loose Hips

You know what you did...

The Bled give their fans the Silent Treatment

Published November 29, 2007  by Christine Leonard

‘[Those bands are] great at what they do. We strive to be great at what we do’ — The Bled: great at standing in bushes

Tracing their roots back to Tucson, Arizona’s tight-knit music scene, music enthusiasts The Bled came together through a restless adolescence spent listening to bands like the Deftones, Converge and Refused. Hashing things out in a process that bass guitarist Darren “HeyGuy” Simoes describes as “natural,” The Bled went through some serious alterations before arriving at their current state as a five-piece thrash-punk ensemble. Singer James Munoz stepped into the role of the band’s front man and Simoes took up the position of bassist while guitarist Jeremy Talley, guitarist Ross Ott and drummer Michael Pedicone kept the original hardcore heartbeat going strong.

“We all know our jobs, so we just get them done,” says Simoes of their collaborative approach. “Usually Jeremy will come up with a few basic random riffs and will bring them to practice where we'll all jam on them for a while and arrange them how they seem fitting. If it sucks, we'll scrap it or alter it to make it flow better, but if it's cool we keep going. [All of us are guitar players first], so everyone seems to figure riffs and things out on a guitar before they're worked out at practice.”

Applying the no-nonsense, full-steam-ahead philosophy of their live shows to their studio sessions, The Bled (formerly Radiation Defiance Theory) have steadily delivered an album every two years since 2003, when they released their rowdy debut, Pass the Flask. Adding to both their prestige and their fan base, the group joined My Chemical Romance and other hotter-than-snot acts on a plethora of tours that have included more than their fair share of Canadian dates — a trend Simoes pledges will continue well into the future. “Canada is great,” he confirms with genuine enthusiasm. “We're trying to play there enough to gain citizenship, so we don't have to pay for health care.”

Preparing to traverse North America in the wake of their latest release, Silent Treatment, the band is geared up to present a dynamic and deafening array of their best material to date. Replete with hyper-intricate guitar runs, thundering metal fury and jarringly brutal vocals, The Bled’s Silent Treatment is anything but. Never afraid to experiment with abstraction and noise, the disc demonstrates a significant progression in the quality and complexity of their sound since their previous album, Found in the Flood, bobbed to the surface in 2005.

“Our main goal was to write a record that we would have fun playing live and not have to worry about it being overproduced, as far as extra effects and tracks go on a recording,” 

Simoes explains of their new 11-track triumph. “Lyrically, it has a lot to do with our lives as touring musicians and the relationships we have with people. It's definitely a difficult thing to maintain healthy relationships with your friends and family at home, not to mention girlfriends. There is a lot of pressure, and not too many ways to communicate other than the Internet or phones. [It’s also about] the relationships we have with each other as a band, touring together, living day in, day out with each other. We wanted it to be a brutally honest record — we didn't want to sugar-coat any of it.”

While that lack of communication is inevitable, Simoes readily acknowledges that giving someone “the silent treatment” as a form of punishment more often than not results in “chaos or alienation.” He much prefers to fill his life with sound and fury.

“We just put out the records we have fun making and have fun playing,” he says. “It just comes out that way. We're a heavy band, but we also want to keep it somewhat interesting and avoid easy clichés to follow, like a bunch of chugs followed by dissonant notes or familiar chorus chord progressions. All of us listen to an array of music from stuff like Radiohead to Fugazi to Meshuggah and even hip hop like Nas or Atmosphere, so we have no problem getting ideas from a broad spectrum other than the world of just metal or hardcore. We have always been our own band. [Those groups are] great at what they do. We strive to be great at what we do.”

THE BUTTLESS CHAPS - Tumbling Along with the Tumbling Tumbleweeds...

THE BUTTLESS CHAPS

Country-Fried Flare! 

by Christine Leonard

In the twang-rich province of Alberta, country bands come and go like tumbleweeds before a Chinook wind. So, how is it that a Victoria-grown foursome, namely The Buttless Chaps, have managed to put down deep roots in the subconscious of Canadian country music? Pure innovation – a talent perhaps best demonstrated on their newest album, Love This Time, which includes some collaborations from their Mint Records label-mates Ford Pier and Carolyn Mark.

Reflecting on five years playing electro-prog-country-rock, singer, guitarist and banjo maestro Dave Gowan reveals what The Buttless Chaps have been up to since the 2001 release of Death Scenes I II and III, and how the band has been evolving since we last heard from them.

In the two years since the release of Death Scenes, lots of things have changed. This time out sees the Chaps experimenting with strings, horns and choirs to expand the sound and make it richer. At the same, Gowan says the band was conscious about not overcrowding the songs.

"We also spent about four months in the studio on Love this Time, which gave us a lot more time to arrange and compose the songs."

While possessing a golden ear certainly has its advantages, Gowan still remains at a loss when it comes to describing The Buttless Chaps’ laid-back approach to the creative process. It seems that these things just come naturally to some folks. And, of course, Gowan gets a lot of help from his faithful band of amigos. Lasse Lutick (electric guitar, lap steel, synthesizers, banjo), Morgan McDonald (keyboards and synth) and Torben Wilson (drums and pads) each add their own secret spice to The Buttless Chaps’ country-fried flair.

"There is no real plan to it, we just let it go where it wants to," explains Gowan.
"When the band is playing well together and we are feeling relaxed, we usually become inspired to write new songs. I think music all ties together – we are not very punk, but Hall and Oates are. Is Lyle Lovett considered new country? I like Lyle Lovett’s voice. I really like his role in the movie Short Cuts, where he plays the evil baker phoning about the birthday cake."

Strange tastes indeed, but what else would one expect from a band that calls itself The Buttless Chaps? Gowan has encountered just about every reaction possible to this all-too-apt anointment of his wonderfully twisted little gang of players. Aren’t all chaps buttless, Dave? Isn’t that kind of the point? Gowan dutifully attempts to extinguish this burning question.

"I have tried to answer that one many times… and have given up. I like the way the name gets misspelled more: ‘Buttless Chips,’ ‘Buttless Chups,’ ‘Buttless Chops.’ and my personal fave, ‘Buttless Craps.’"

All modesty aside, The Buttless Chaps continue to leap the barbwire fences of the imagination, grabbing the whole western music genre by the horns and wrestling it to the muddy ground in one swift movement. Some unwitting concert-goers may resent being pelted with their oven-fresh audio road apples, but that’s just the price you’ll pay for sittin’ rail side at The Buttless Chaps rodeo.

"We are very honoured to get to play for people and that they choose to share their time with us... Some people prefer the rootsy stuff, some prefer the ’80s stuff, some people are brought by their friends and kindly tolerate both. Some people threaten us, or tell us to play the blues.… I think people kind of know that the show mixes different genres."

by Christine Leonard

Catch The Buttless Chaps Live:

Friday, September 19
Liberty Lounge
Saturday, September 20, 2003
Original Joe's